The goddamned bar exam is the only thing I can think about, so it's the perennial subject of this blog and everything else out of my mouth/mind, and will be until it's over.
The thing is the DAY AFTER TOMORROW, and the panic abated for the last week or so, but really? This is terrifying. Because if I don't pass, I have to wait another 6 months and pay another $600, and in the meantime I won't get licensed and it will be even harder to find work. Which, as it turns out, isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world right now as it is. Can you read the edge in my voice? Because it's there, with a little shakiness. And still, I'm too burned out to study any more. Which only freaks me out more. It's a vicious cycle, I tell you.
I am, however, looking forward to staying at the Hotel Teatro during the exam. And eating at alto the night between exam days. I've never been to either of the places before, but they look amazing on the websites, and are really close to the Convention Center where the bar exam is to be held. I figured I could pamper myself (and Rex), given that this is probably the most stressful thing I'll ever do. At least until I have (if I have) kids.
I'm off to see if I can't force a few more minutes of mnemonic device learning into my head. PATERNITY, KIDBARF, CAMPingMAP, ALIE, SID to the REC, HEDDEC, HOACS, RVCABLEFAILS, this sucks ass. And I only know what a few of those even stand for.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Sharing Time
Rex Invictus. He made it up, not me. Creativity in lieu of bar exam studying = good stuff.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Why he's my favorite
Rex just sent me this message:
Люблю тебя всем сердцем, всей душою
It means "I love you with all my heart, with all my soul" in Russian (is that correct, miss grace?). You see, everyone thinks he's Russian, even though he's really from Texas. So it's cute. At least, I think so.
Люблю тебя всем сердцем, всей душою
It means "I love you with all my heart, with all my soul" in Russian (is that correct, miss grace?). You see, everyone thinks he's Russian, even though he's really from Texas. So it's cute. At least, I think so.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
25 Things, because everyone is doing it.
1. I finally live in a grown-up house. I still rent, but it's a house, with a dishwasher.
2. I am getting married in September. I'm very excited.
3. My little sister is my BEST friend in the whole world. And she turns 21 next week.
4. My college roommate/best friend in college didn't speak to me for about 2 years. I still had dreams about her every few nights. We're speaking again, which makes me happy.
5. I really really don't like bananas. Or anything that smells like them. Yuck.
6. I used to have a gremlin in my tummy. It's back, because of the bar exam.
7. I knit, and crochet. Occasionally.
8. My sister was 2 and a half months premature. She weighed less than two pounds, and almost didn't survive. You'd never know it today (Are all of these supposed to be about me?)
9. I prefer my water "con gas," with bubbles.
10. I tap dance. I've been doing it since I was four, and have performed with my mom and my sister.
11. I had laser eye surgery at the end of 2007. I was almost legally blind at that point. Now I see 20/20.
12. I'm a little OCD. For the first two years of law school, I could use ONLY pink highlighters. Otherwise I kind of freaked.
13. Sleeping is my favorite thing to do. I love naps.
14. I'm taking the Colorado bar exam in just over two weeks. My hands shake whenever I think about how soon that is.
15. I have a law degree, and make $10/hour. I thought I'd make more at this point.
16. My parents are still married. Happily.
17. My favorite color is green. My eyes are green.
18. I really like to stay in hotels, even cheap motels. As long as they aren't too too seedy.
19. I drink champagne regularly. It's not reserved for special occasions in my world.
20. I'm left handed.
21. I hated cats until the day I got one. I'm not sure how I bridged that gap, but now I have two and they are my family.
22. My car is named Harvey. He is 13, but you'd never know it. Except that I just told you, so now you know.
23. I used to freak out about getting older (which included a tantrum on every birthday). That stopped ever since I met Rex. Now I'm comfortable with getting older (old!).
24. We had a dog named Babs when I was younger. She was a really mellow Golden Retriever. I still miss her.
25. I consider myself to be a very fortunate, lucky person. I have a good life, and try to remember that every day.
2. I am getting married in September. I'm very excited.
3. My little sister is my BEST friend in the whole world. And she turns 21 next week.
4. My college roommate/best friend in college didn't speak to me for about 2 years. I still had dreams about her every few nights. We're speaking again, which makes me happy.
5. I really really don't like bananas. Or anything that smells like them. Yuck.
6. I used to have a gremlin in my tummy. It's back, because of the bar exam.
7. I knit, and crochet. Occasionally.
8. My sister was 2 and a half months premature. She weighed less than two pounds, and almost didn't survive. You'd never know it today (Are all of these supposed to be about me?)
9. I prefer my water "con gas," with bubbles.
10. I tap dance. I've been doing it since I was four, and have performed with my mom and my sister.
11. I had laser eye surgery at the end of 2007. I was almost legally blind at that point. Now I see 20/20.
12. I'm a little OCD. For the first two years of law school, I could use ONLY pink highlighters. Otherwise I kind of freaked.
13. Sleeping is my favorite thing to do. I love naps.
14. I'm taking the Colorado bar exam in just over two weeks. My hands shake whenever I think about how soon that is.
15. I have a law degree, and make $10/hour. I thought I'd make more at this point.
16. My parents are still married. Happily.
17. My favorite color is green. My eyes are green.
18. I really like to stay in hotels, even cheap motels. As long as they aren't too too seedy.
19. I drink champagne regularly. It's not reserved for special occasions in my world.
20. I'm left handed.
21. I hated cats until the day I got one. I'm not sure how I bridged that gap, but now I have two and they are my family.
22. My car is named Harvey. He is 13, but you'd never know it. Except that I just told you, so now you know.
23. I used to freak out about getting older (which included a tantrum on every birthday). That stopped ever since I met Rex. Now I'm comfortable with getting older (old!).
24. We had a dog named Babs when I was younger. She was a really mellow Golden Retriever. I still miss her.
25. I consider myself to be a very fortunate, lucky person. I have a good life, and try to remember that every day.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Making fun of the misled, again.
High school students in Denver got a pair of Democratic legislators to back a bill that will impose a 6 cent fee on plastic bags at the grocery store (really, the language includes all very large stores), and ultimately require that the bags be phased out by 2012. Half the fee goes towards education on the eventual phase-out. The bill is a good one, though maybe not of the most pressing urgency.
The nay-sayers (conservatives) argue that the bill is bad because then we'll just use more paper bags, which require more resources to produce. Well, that is true about paper bags. It just completely overlooks the point--to get people to use reusable bags. Not paper bags, which also contribute to landfills and litter. High school kids aren't that retarded. Unless they're conservatives too, of course.
If you read the article, you might notice the comment that the bill implicates TABOR. Well, if the author knew the difference between a tax and a fee (knowledge absolutely essential to any discussion regarding TABOR), the article might read differently. TABOR specifically allows fees without a consent vote, and a fee is a flat "tax" (it cannot be based on income, for example) that goes to pay for a specific service. The 6 cents per bag is a flat fee (it doesn't depend on how much you spend on groceries, for example--that would make it a tax), and the bill designates precisely what the revenue is to be spent on--the service of educating the public about the bag phase-out. Looks like a fee to me.
All that aside, my favorite part of the op-ed piece is the comments submitted by readers. Naturally, they take the form of debate between those who support the bill, mostly liberals, and those opposed, mostly conservatives. My favorite comment is this one:
The nay-sayers (conservatives) argue that the bill is bad because then we'll just use more paper bags, which require more resources to produce. Well, that is true about paper bags. It just completely overlooks the point--to get people to use reusable bags. Not paper bags, which also contribute to landfills and litter. High school kids aren't that retarded. Unless they're conservatives too, of course.
If you read the article, you might notice the comment that the bill implicates TABOR. Well, if the author knew the difference between a tax and a fee (knowledge absolutely essential to any discussion regarding TABOR), the article might read differently. TABOR specifically allows fees without a consent vote, and a fee is a flat "tax" (it cannot be based on income, for example) that goes to pay for a specific service. The 6 cents per bag is a flat fee (it doesn't depend on how much you spend on groceries, for example--that would make it a tax), and the bill designates precisely what the revenue is to be spent on--the service of educating the public about the bag phase-out. Looks like a fee to me.
All that aside, my favorite part of the op-ed piece is the comments submitted by readers. Naturally, they take the form of debate between those who support the bill, mostly liberals, and those opposed, mostly conservatives. My favorite comment is this one:
That last sentence is especially my favorite. I'll bet this guy is a big supporter of the Heartland Institute.
I refuse to recycle.
I flush the toilet multiple times.
I use plastic bags and throw them in the garbage.
I drive a car and only worry about emissions at inspection time.
I put used kitty litter in the trash.
I use paper towels.
I use old incandescent bulbs.
I intentionally try to put as much carbon back into the environment that I can.
I refuse to yeild the road I pay taxes to keep up to bicycles.
I run the washing machine with just a few items in it.I take pride in being a contrarian disestablishmentarain who "fights the environmentalist whacko establishment" any time I can, in my own little way. Mankind, even if totally focused on doing so, CANNOT destroy the planet, nor its environment.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Conservatives without Brains
This is kind of long, because I've reprinted a piece from the Daily Camera...
In last week's paper (from the ever-liberal Boulder), was a piece from a local named Don Lloyd, complaining about the "liberal hate mongers." Here is what he had to say:
Noting that Mr. Lloyd is patently wrong on a few points, let me take this opportunity to point out just what the conservative jackass pretends to know, but really knows nothing about.
First, let me acknowledge that he is correct that there has been much Bush-bashing going on, not just in the end of Mr. Monkey's term, but throughout. As an educated person, I think that the bashing was warranted. The man was an idiot and a fraud, and not fit to lead this country.
Next, Mr. Lloyd goes on to mention the negative treatment of conservative guest speakers at CU. Mr. Lloyd says that the campus liberals "are quick to prevent any significant conservative voice from speaking at CU, even when they've been invited for the engagement." Well, Mr. Lloyd, I hate to disappoint, but at the time of your writing there were prolific advertisments of a conservative speaker, coming to the CU campus to speak. On January 26, the conservative author Dinesh D'Souza engaged in a debate entitled "What's so great about God," on campus. So much for that idea. D'Souza is a best-selling author, a former senior policy analyst for the Reagan Administration, and was described by New York Times Magazine as one of the nation's leading conservative thinkers. Seems to me just like the kind of person Mr. Lloyd was describing.
The other major point in Lloyd's column I'd like to address is his statement that we liberals will essentially follow President Obama in blind faith. Even if we do, I'd really like to know how that is at all different from the astonishing blind faith I saw conservatives put in President Bush, even when he couldn't form complete sentences and had to lie his way through the war in Iraq.
Mr. Lloyd accurately illustrates the ignorance espoused by so many conservatives, and it's always nice to see them put their feet in their mouths in public.
In last week's paper (from the ever-liberal Boulder), was a piece from a local named Don Lloyd, complaining about the "liberal hate mongers." Here is what he had to say:
It is worrisome to contemplate how the numerous liberal hate mongers will react to the sudden loss of their opportunity to express their unprecedented disrespect and hate of our President. Will it be something like drug withdrawals, or will it be depression? Surely, the Camera cartoonist will be saddened that he can no longer express his narrow-minded hate by regularly casting our president as an ignorant monkey.
No, this will not be replaced by similar but conservative purveyors of disrespect, because they seem to have the ability to communicate criticism more constructively. It’s similar to the treatment of liberal versus conservative guest speakers on the CU campus. We never see liberal guest speakers taunted or blocked from speaking, yet the campus liberals, who loudly declare the merits of freedom of speech and the right to self-expression, are quick to prevent any significant conservative voice from speaking at CU, even when they’ve been invited for the engagement. And such behavior is vindicated by what great moral justification? Certainly it isn’t freedom of speech, or a balanced political venue. And now someone has even dared to suggest the need for a new seat of conservative thought on our fair campus – horrors!
It isn’t going to be easy for the libs, when they begin to see the bill for the massive promises being made by President Obama and his inability to deliver on many. But they will readily commit their complete support to our new president, exercising the same respect and support so completely denied President Bush.
If you think this concern for liberal withdrawals isn’t well founded, just consider the numerous hate-filled harangues printed over the past few weeks, trying to get in the last bash before President Bush leaves the oval office to his successor.
Noting that Mr. Lloyd is patently wrong on a few points, let me take this opportunity to point out just what the conservative jackass pretends to know, but really knows nothing about.
First, let me acknowledge that he is correct that there has been much Bush-bashing going on, not just in the end of Mr. Monkey's term, but throughout. As an educated person, I think that the bashing was warranted. The man was an idiot and a fraud, and not fit to lead this country.
Next, Mr. Lloyd goes on to mention the negative treatment of conservative guest speakers at CU. Mr. Lloyd says that the campus liberals "are quick to prevent any significant conservative voice from speaking at CU, even when they've been invited for the engagement." Well, Mr. Lloyd, I hate to disappoint, but at the time of your writing there were prolific advertisments of a conservative speaker, coming to the CU campus to speak. On January 26, the conservative author Dinesh D'Souza engaged in a debate entitled "What's so great about God," on campus. So much for that idea. D'Souza is a best-selling author, a former senior policy analyst for the Reagan Administration, and was described by New York Times Magazine as one of the nation's leading conservative thinkers. Seems to me just like the kind of person Mr. Lloyd was describing.
The other major point in Lloyd's column I'd like to address is his statement that we liberals will essentially follow President Obama in blind faith. Even if we do, I'd really like to know how that is at all different from the astonishing blind faith I saw conservatives put in President Bush, even when he couldn't form complete sentences and had to lie his way through the war in Iraq.
Mr. Lloyd accurately illustrates the ignorance espoused by so many conservatives, and it's always nice to see them put their feet in their mouths in public.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
The J.D. is official
All my grades are (finally) in from last semester. I managed to squeak by in all my classes, which means the J.D. is mine to keep. Huzzah! I'm officially an unlicensed attorney!
The bar isn't looking quite so rosy, but I'm intending to keep cramming for the next four weeks (it's 30 days exactly to the exam), so wish me luck.
The bar isn't looking quite so rosy, but I'm intending to keep cramming for the next four weeks (it's 30 days exactly to the exam), so wish me luck.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Busy times
In the last month, I graduated from law school, went to Crested Butte and Texas (spraining my ankle and tearing ligaments in between trips), moved, started a new job, and started studying for the bar. Bar review really, really sucks. What with trying to get accustomed to the new job and get moved in, plus that nagging wedding planning business, bar review, which should be a full-time affair, really isn't even close. Eight hours a week is a surefire way to fail. But studying for the thing sucks way more than law school did. I need: (A) more time in a day; (B) more weeks in January; and (C) the bar exam to be anytime good and later than the end of February. That's not too much to ask, is it?
Oh, and I went snowboarding this morning. My still-not-totally-healed ankle wasn't really thrilled, especially after Jazzercise yesterday. But it was such a beautiful day, I couldn't resist!
Oh, and I went snowboarding this morning. My still-not-totally-healed ankle wasn't really thrilled, especially after Jazzercise yesterday. But it was such a beautiful day, I couldn't resist!
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Under the Dome
So I've been hard at work for a few days now, really about a week. Having to get up at 6:30 to go to work really sucks, but my job as a legislative aide is interesting.
Except on Monday. The 40 minute commute took nearly three hours because of an unexpected storm, a commute in which I had to stand up on the bus on my sprained ankle (and yes, it's STILL screwed up). We finally got off the bus at an early stop to walk the rest of the way because of the horrid slowness of the traffic. Then Starbucks got my drink SO WRONG (I ordered a cappuccino, it's not rocket science) and I was so cranky that I threw it on the ground because I didn't realize it was wrong until we were away from the store. Rex was kind enough to buy me a new one at the next Starbucks, but then when I got to work the phone rang immediately and I was stuck talking to crazy constituents for the next two hours. One lady took up a whole hour on her own. The rest of the day was good, including the commute home, until we were in the parking lot at the bus station and I slipped on black ice and landed right on my ass. Which was also not so bad until Rex slipped right after me and his leg went right into my back. I burst into tears for a minute, then we were laughing, and then we had wine. Lots and lots of wine, for purposes of curing the Monday-from-hell-ness.
Yesterday and today have been much better.
Except on Monday. The 40 minute commute took nearly three hours because of an unexpected storm, a commute in which I had to stand up on the bus on my sprained ankle (and yes, it's STILL screwed up). We finally got off the bus at an early stop to walk the rest of the way because of the horrid slowness of the traffic. Then Starbucks got my drink SO WRONG (I ordered a cappuccino, it's not rocket science) and I was so cranky that I threw it on the ground because I didn't realize it was wrong until we were away from the store. Rex was kind enough to buy me a new one at the next Starbucks, but then when I got to work the phone rang immediately and I was stuck talking to crazy constituents for the next two hours. One lady took up a whole hour on her own. The rest of the day was good, including the commute home, until we were in the parking lot at the bus station and I slipped on black ice and landed right on my ass. Which was also not so bad until Rex slipped right after me and his leg went right into my back. I burst into tears for a minute, then we were laughing, and then we had wine. Lots and lots of wine, for purposes of curing the Monday-from-hell-ness.
Yesterday and today have been much better.
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